Highway 88 · Kirkwood, California
Where luxurymeets the wild.
Forty acres, a private lake, and a lodge the owners built by hand — in the middle of the Sierra. You get the whole place for five days, and nobody else is booked while you’re here.
The Proposition
You’re not renting a room with a view.You’re renting the whole mountain.
Tom and BJ Hoover and their sons cut the trees that were standing on this land, peeled the logs by hand, and milled the siding, the doors and the saloon bar right here. It took them eight summers. What they ended up with is 40 acres and a private lake, surrounded on every side by thousands of acres of national forest.
Nobody else can build this, and nobody else is sharing it with you. We only take one booking at a time — so while you’re here there’s no other wedding, no other guests, no front desk, and nobody to tell you the music has to stop.
The Survey · Sheet 01
Truly one of a
kind location.
Lodge, saloon, dance hall, lake, granite, camping meadow — ten places spread across 40 acres, and while you’re booked, every one of them is yours. Have a look around.
Property Tour · 04:27
The whole place,
in four minutes.
A walk from the gate down to the lake — the lodge, the saloon, the reception ground, the ceremony sites and The Lookout. The next best thing to driving up and seeing it.
The Booking · 5 days · 4 nights
Everyone else sells you
an afternoon.
Most venues give you a six-hour window on a property you’re sharing with strangers. Here you get the gate key for the better part of a week. What happens in between is why people book this place.
- IThursday16:00
The gate closes behind you
Fifteen minutes of dirt road, then the whole place opens up in front of you — and that’s the last you’ll see of the outside world for five days. Sixteen people move into the lodge and the saloon. Nobody has to drive anywhere to change clothes, find a bathroom, or check out of a hotel.
- IIFridayall day
Set it up on your own schedule
Florists, caterers, the band, the tent company — they all get a full day instead of a frantic four-hour window. You walk the ceremony sites and pick the one you want. Then everybody swims, and the welcome party goes as long as it goes.
- IIISaturdaythe day
The wedding
Coffee cabin in the morning. Ceremony on the granite or out in the meadow. Up to 220 guests at the reception if you want them. The dance hall is thirty feet from the tables, there’s no noise ordinance and no last call, and the hot tub is still warm at two in the morning.
- IVSundayslowly
Nobody gets asked to leave
This is the day almost every other venue takes away from you. Breakfast on the deck, canoes out on the lake, and the last of your guests heading down the hill whenever they feel like it. Most couples tell us this is the day they remember.
- VMonday11:00
Out by eleven
We deal with the garbage. You drive back down Puckerbutt Hill, turn onto Highway 88, and the place goes quiet again until the next booking.
- IMonday15:00
The gate closes behind you
Fifteen minutes of dirt road, then the whole place opens up in front of you — and that’s the last you’ll see of the outside world until Thursday. Sixteen people move into the lodge and the saloon. Nobody has to drive anywhere to change clothes, find a bathroom, or check out of a hotel.
- IITuesdaythe day
The wedding
Coffee cabin in the morning. Ceremony at the arbor, on the granite, or out in the meadow. Up to 220 guests at the reception if you want them. The dance hall is thirty feet from the tables, there’s no noise ordinance and no last call, and the hot tub is still warm at two in the morning.
- IIIWednesdayslowly
Nobody gets asked to leave
The day almost every other venue takes away from you. Breakfast on the deck, canoes out on the lake, and the last of your guests heading down the hill whenever they feel like it. Most couples tell us this is the day they remember.
- IVThursday11:00
Out by eleven
We deal with the garbage. You drive back down Puckerbutt Hill, turn onto Highway 88, and the place goes quiet again until the next booking.
Five days with the whole property to yourselves — for less per day than most Tahoe venues charge for a single afternoon.
See the packagesHouse Rules
What we don’t do.
Every other venue you’re looking at has a list of these. We don’t — not because we’re being generous, but because there’s nobody out here to enforce them. No curfew, limited restrictions, and the wedding of your dreams, your way.
- 01
Curfew
The music stops when you stop it. There’s no noise ordinance out here, and no neighbors to complain to one.
- 02
Shared dates
One booking at a time. Nobody’s getting married on the other side of the property while you’re eating dinner.
- 03
Required caterer
Bring whoever you want. There’s a caterer’s kitchen in the bunkhouse waiting for them.
- 04
Corkage
Bring your own alcohol — all of it. No bar minimum, no per-head markup, no house pour.
- 05
Last call
Ten outdoor heaters, two fire pits, and a hot tub that stays hot until you get out of it.
- 06
Four-hour window
Five days and four nights. Set up whenever you like. We handle the garbage on the way out.
Reel · 00:52
One summer, one property.
Shot right here over one summer. No stock footage, no other location, no borrowed sky.
Photographs
Every picture on this site was taken here.
None of it is stock.
Drag, scroll or swipe →
“The scenery is something out of a fairytale.”
Ben & Melissa Ward — married at The Hideout
Amador County Awards
“Best of” Wedding Venues
Owned and run by the family that built it. Someone from The Hideout is on the property the whole time you’re here — we’re completely off grid, on solar and generator, and it takes looking after.
Get in Touch
Join the Hideout family.
Dates book up a year to eighteen months ahead. Tell us roughly when and roughly how many, and we’ll tell you what’s still open.